Bu-bye Windows 8

Bu-bye Windows 8: a reader asks…

Hi Coach, I bought a new laptop PC in March 2013, with Windows 8. I haven’t bothered to upgrade it to the 8.1 update that Microsoft put out, and now I see a Windows 10 update being offered. My PC is working ok, should I upgrade or keep what I’ve got going? And if you say to upgrade, which one should I do?

Houston, you have a problem. Windows 8 (for just about everyone besides you) was an unmitigated disaster. So much so that just this last week Microsoft has pulled the support plug for it, along with older versions of Internet Explorer (anything older than IE 11). So at this point, keeping what you’ve got is a real security risk. You’ve got two choices at this point and both involve upgrading. Here’s the main points on the two, followed by what I think you should do:

Windows 8.1 is going to act and feel the closest to what you have now in Windows 8. You’ll still have the touch-screen-friendly Start Screen. I expect Microsoft to pull support on Windows 8.1 sooner rather than later, since it suffers from many of the same problems as Windows 8. While you haven’t been experiencing any problems yet, the chance for them to creep up on you is high.

Windows 10 (according to Microsoft) marries the best features of Windows 8.1 with some of the things people missed most from Windows 7. Notably, the Start menu is back (instead of a Start Screen) that mixes the Windows 8.1 start page tiles with the familiar Windows 7 Start Menu. The best features of Windows 10 (over 8.1) include:

• the modern Metro apps now work in windows instead of only full-screen
• better gaming performance with DirectX 12
• multiple virtual desktops just like the Mac and Linux folks have been enjoying for years
• the new Action Center for Metro apps’ notifications, which used to just display for a bit and then disappear forever
• Cortana offers Siri-like voice control for your Windows computer

So which should you choose? My opinion is Windows 10 hands-down. Since you’re already comfortable using Windows 8, you’re not going to see major changes going to Windows 10 in the way you work. You can easily switch from the Start Menu to the Start Screen or back by clicking Start > Settings > Personalization > Start, and sliding the switch near the bottom “Use Start full screen”. For more ways to customize your Start menu, please see this article.